The racism is most obvious when you look at who are allies of "The West' [ahem] and who are allies of Sauron. "Southrons" in particular with their elephants. The "corsairs of umbar." all of the heros are pretty obviously from the british isles, or at least northern europe. If you look at his "map of middle earth" the enemies are pretty much everyone who lives east or south, and his descriptions make it pretty clear that they're asiatic, black, or brown.
-- Charles On Wed, Aug 8, 2012 at 7:23 PM, Heather Madrone <[email protected]> wrote: > On 8/8/12 8:36 AM August 8, 2012, ss wrote: > >> On Wednesday 08 Aug 2012 12:47:58 pm Ramakrishnan Sundaram wrote: >> >>> Tolkien was a tedious read too, but the Peter Jackson movies made them >>> watchable, unlike the Rand movies. I read the books again with my son, >>> and realised that I had missed the racism completely the first time. >>> >> I am re reading those Tolkien books right now. I'm afraid I haven't yet >> got to >> parts that I can say are definitely racist. I am about 30% through - with >> my >> first reading having been done about 30 years ago. >> > > Tolkien's world amazes me mostly for the class rigidity. Position in > society is largely determined by birth. For all Sam Gamgee's heroism, he's > still the hired help when he gets back home. Elves are the true aristocracy > in Tolkien's world, and they exist in a realm far above men and hobbits. I > guess you could see racist overtones in that, but I think the class > overtones are far more sinister. > > To me, the most important aspect of Tolkien's work is the way he used it > to work out his own experience with early industrialized warfare. He served > in WWI, and many of the scenes from _The Two Towers_ (like the trip through > the dead marshes) are taken from his battle experience. > > Years ago, I read that the Nazgul were based on the German Stuka > divebombers. > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?**v=89eRBGqtVBo<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89eRBGqtVBo> > > The Stuka were one of the tools of warfare tested by the Germans in the > Spanish civil war and used to terrorize in the blitzkrieg. > > Sometimes it seems to me that British science fiction writers told the > story of the world wars over and over again in the 20th century. Even Harry > Potter seems like another retelling of WWII. > > Tolkien is perhaps the prime example of the way the world wars gripped the > British imagination. He wrote much of _The Lord of the Rings_ under the > influence of WWII. > > One of the overarching messages of _The Lord of the Rings_ is that evil > tools cannot be used for good ends. Many of the terrifying aspects of > Sauron's power are manufactured, a sort of evil technology that cannot > possibly be used for good. Even the orcs (which might be the basis of some > of the claims of racism) are an engineered species rather than a natural > one. > > When Sam and Frodo return to the Shire, they discover that it has been > despoiled and polluted by the war. For the rest of their lives, they are > slowly poisoned by the evil they encountered on the war, much as WWI > veterans died slowly due to gas exposure and other aftereffects of trench > warfare. > > So, for me, _The Lord of the Rings_ is mostly interesting because of what > it reveals about the interior experience of early industrial warfare. > > -- > Heather Madrone ([email protected]) > http://www.sunsplinter.**blogspot.com<http://www.sunsplinter.blogspot.com> > > Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at > its best is power correcting everything that stands against love. > - Martin Luther King > > >
